1. Field of the Invention
The present invention includes a Breast Cancer Related Protein (BCRP) having an apoptosis-inducing activity, a gene encoding the same, and a microarray comprising immobilized fragments of the BCRP gene. Also, the present invention includes a method of diagnosing breast cancer with an antibody specifically recognizing the BCRP, and a method of diagnosing breast cancer by determining whether the BCRP gene is expressed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Breast cancer is diagnosed and occurs most frequently in women. Breast cancer is next to lung cancer when considering terminal cancers. The incidence of breast cancer has been steadily increasing over the past 50 years and, in particular, is surging in Korea. There are several risk factors that can increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer. These factors include age, past breast cancer history, exposure to radiation, family history for breast cancer, social and economical class, pregnancy, menarche, menopause, and first pregnancy after age 30.
It is known that breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and various breast tumors are induced by female sex hormones. There are many recognized factors and unknown factors. Identified changes in oncogenes include amplifications of HER-2 and an epithelial growth factor receptor gene and overexpression of cyclin D1. The overexpression of an oncogene is associated with considerably slow progress of breast cancer. Similarly, genetic change or loss of a tumor inhibitory gene, such as p53, may be associated with slow progress of breast cancer.
Researchers found two genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are predictors of familial breast cancer before menopause. Early diagnosis of breast cancer is essential to assure the best treatment results. Many countries having advanced healthcare systems have a program for screening for breast cancer. Information employed in the selection of the treatment and prognosis may include, for example, measurement of the state of estrogen and progesterone receptors.
Some objectives in the treatment of breast cancer are to improve early detection success rate, to find a novel non-invasive marker capable of tracing the progress of the disease and identifying recurrence, and to find an improved treatment for progressed disease, which still has a very low 5-year survival rate. It is desirable to identify more specific targets for cancerous cells, so as to attack tumor cells through new prospective methods such as immunotherapy and targeted toxin therapy, both of which ideally target molecules expressed on the surface of tumor cells.